Tuesday, January 24, 2017

Here's a bunch of comics I have thoughts about that are coming out this week.

Checkmate by Greg Rucka feels like it should be one of those series spoken of with great reverence in the same way people talk about the original Suicide Squad or American Flagg or NFL SuperPro. Checkmate comes from the post Infinite Crisis period of DC where, at least for me, they were at a creative zenith, and while it’s been a while since I’ve read it, I remember it being one of the series I anticipated most. Checkmate took what Rucka was doing on Queen and Country and applied it to the DC Universe, crafting a smart and mature spy book with plenty of politics and also robots. Checkmate is one of those DC or Marvel comic books that come out every once in a while that is enough of a departure from other superhero comics that it feels super unique. I’m glad to see this is getting a collection, although I wonder how it will read to anyone who doesn’t remember that Batman used to date his bodyguard and then she got turned into a cyborg and then she became a spy and oh yeah Mr. Terrific was cool back then. Checkmate was good, and it's cool DC is bringing it back out.

Detective Comics #949 and I would read so many more DC books if they had any kind of digital price drop or sales but DC has opted not to and me complaining about it such a whiney thing to do. “Ohhh, why won’t DC make their comics cheaper boo hoo hoo I’m a freaking cheapskate but I still have the scruples to not pirate books wahhh.” I know, I know this is why I don’t really complain about it too much but I still resent it like hell. Anyway, I’ve read the first three issues of Rebirth Detective and I kind of want to read more. I’ll keep waiting for a sale. Because I’m a cheap bastard.

Doom Patrol #4 – I hate paying $4 for a digital comic, the story kind of doesn’t make sense and that’s largely because of being goofy for the sake of goofiness but it did have Flex Mentallo and Danny the Street (now world) and I think I’ll keep reading this. I can’t remember if I read #3 though and that’s never a good sign. Or it’s just that my memory’s shit. Probably that last one.

Hey, there’s a new Kamamdi book I guess. There’s about a 25% success rate when people take later Kirby concepts and try to revive them. I’m thinking of Walt Simonson’s Orion, and I guess people seem to like the new Moon Girl Devil Dinosaur comic but I guess that begs the question of how far afield do you have to go before something is not a Kirby concept? Didio’s Omac may count, I know some people who raved about that. I’m not going to count Final Crisis because I was thinking about it tonight and I don’t think it’s actually all that good. I may need to reread it, but then I’d be spending my time reading a comic I’ve read several times and already don’t think is all that good. And don’t tell me “Well you have to read all of Morrison’s Batman and JLA and Seven Soldiers to get it” because bleegh if I’m going to read someone’s massive run it’s going to be Hickman’s Marvel Secret Warriors/FF/Avengers/Secret Wars run.

Anyway, comics! Buy them. Or buy other comics. I don’t know what you like.